Empire State of Mind
Empire State of Mind
Secrets to Success in Home and Commercial Property Inspections | FBI Group with Tom Frey and Dustie Amatangelo
In this episode of Empire State of Mind, host Matt Williams sits down with the Florida Building Inspection (FBI) Group to discuss their journey in the home inspection industry. With special guests Tom Frey and Dusty Amatangelo, they dive into the origins of FBI Group, the challenges and rewards of scaling their business, and how they've expanded beyond inspections to include mold assessments, commercial property inspections, and more.
The conversation covers everything from the importance of great customer service to innovative services like their home watch and handyman programs. Whether you're an industry professional or curious about the inspection world, this episode is packed with valuable insights.
Tune in to learn how the FBI Group has grown, the strategies that set them apart, and the lessons they've learned along the way!
Contact IEB -
- web: www.iebcoaching.com
- email: support@iebcoaching
- social: @iebcoaching
Contact Matt -
- email: matt@dciabq.com
- IG: @the.matthew.williams
We believe the purpose of owning a business is funding your perfect life. Welcome to the next generation of growth and opportunity in the inspection industry. This is the Empire State of Mind. Empire State of Mind Helping build companies with faster growth, higher profits and more time freedom. Finally, a podcast for the home inspection industry and beyond. This is the Empire State of Mind and this is your host, matt Williams.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Empire State of Mind. On today's episode, we're talking to the FBI. I can't believe we have the. Fbi live right here with us in the studio. How are you guys doing today?
Speaker 4:We're doing outstanding. We're the other guys in blue. That's right, the other guys in blue, the good guys in blue.
Speaker 2:That's funny.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So FBI stands for.
Speaker 4:Florida Building Inspection Group. Yeah, I've seen FBI using other acronyms that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some of them mildly offensive.
Speaker 4:That name was already taken and a website was taken, so we had to go with the Florida Building Inspection Group.
Speaker 2:That works. Florida Building Inspection Group.
Speaker 4:And we're just known around town as the FBI group. I love it. Yeah, we get a lot of mileage out of it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sure you do, absolutely. Do you have uniforms for the guys that are police-looking uniforms? How do you do that?
Speaker 4:You know, what Do you have like a badge? In the very beginning I wanted to get rain jackets that had the yellow yes, but we have an attorney friend and they're like that is just way too close, Way too close to the real thing.
Speaker 2:What do you do like FBI group? I know.
Speaker 4:People are going to, the neighbors are going to come out and they're going to be you guys and FBI.
Speaker 2:you know, do you have like blacked out SUVs for your inspection vehicles.
Speaker 4:No, but our inspectors do wear glasses. They wear that Earpieces. We just want to flirt with being funny about being the FBI group. We're not too close. We're the real ones that are going to be knocking on our door. That's a problem.
Speaker 2:Right, right. Yeah, you have a conflict of interest. I mean as long as you guys aren't trying to arrest people and they're not trying to inspect houses, you're probably good yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, so our audience may not know who you guys are. So, tom, why don't you say just a little bit about yourself? Who are you and what is this FBI group? Yeah, the FBI group.
Speaker 4:Well, we're based out of Tampa, Florida. We've been doing it almost 14 years now, something like that. Okay, pretty close, by trade or by school. I'm actually a mechanical engineer by schooling. Okay, I'm a licensed general contractor. So I was building houses and building light commercial buildings and somehow transitioned into, got exposed to the home inspection business through realtors who were friends and started doing home inspections as a favor to some of my realtor friends. It wasn't fun, it was like you're paying the butt, but one inspection turned into one.
Speaker 3:A week turned into two a week Turned into two a day.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, one week, within three hours, I made my truck payment. I'm like, ooh, the light bulb just went off. You know, in construction anybody who's in construction knows you actually got to bid to work, you got to buy the material, you got to pay the labor, you got to get the work in place and then you got to hope you get paid in 30 days, which turns into 45, which turns into 60. So it's cash intensive Construction yeah, you're floating money in.
Speaker 2:You're floating money in for these projects to get it all done and sure you can make some good money. But golly, there's a lot of float. That's happening.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I always laugh the busier I was in construction, the broker I was, Because I owed materials labor. Oh right, but in three inspections they paid me right at the end. Right, but in three inspections, I mean, they paid me right at the end.
Speaker 2:I'm like, yeah, that's one thing I love about the inspection industry is that you get paid on the spot for the services you're providing on the spot.
Speaker 4:Right and then, after we got established and got some procedures and things in place, people were paying us before we even got to the job site.
Speaker 2:Yep, isn't that a nice thing? Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4:So the light bulb went on. It was like, ooh, this is much better, yeah, than a pocketbook. And uh, yeah, I would say heavy construction. I would say most for us.
Speaker 2:Most of our inspections are getting paid ahead of time yeah because when you get your systems, processes, merchants, accounts and you make it really easy for people to pay, they'll sign your contracts online and like things are signed and paid before any of the guys even show up some days and if they aren't paid they have to be signed the contract. If they aren't paid, like there are reports behind a paywall and so they don't get the product until they pay.
Speaker 4:It's a blessing. It's a blessing, but on the other side of the tracks, where you've got to wait for your money, it's so nice.
Speaker 2:Well, I was an electrical contractor for a long time, so I understand that. I get it how you're like and you've got to build a supply house for all the electrician stuff you've been picking up there. You've got net 30 at the supply house for your materials. But then it's like when you get that job done and you finish it up, you've got net 30 on your side as well.
Speaker 4:If you're working for a general contractor, you might admit, and they're going to slow pay you because they're getting paid.
Speaker 2:And so you know, like all the slow pay just like rolls downhill and, depending where you're at, in that slosh of whatever, Like you could be overextended. And then, yeah, you feel poor even though you've got so many accounts receivables and payables going, and at the end of the year you're like, well, I actually did okay. But man, sometimes you're like you get stuck in the middle of that with the cash flow game.
Speaker 4:It's tough. Yeah, I mean I looked wealthy on paper, only on paper.
Speaker 1:You looked at my receipts, my payables.
Speaker 4:Payables were huge, receivables were. You know, it's just yeah. I just felt like I was money laundering when I was doing construction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4:You get a good check in out to pay labor and materials and labor for the next job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's funny. That's funny. Well, we're also here with Dusty Dusty yeah, hi, how are you doing? How long have you been with FB Eiger?
Speaker 3:Since 2015.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're almost going on 10 years. Wow, what do you do with FB? Eiger, I'm.
Speaker 3:VP of Strategic Partnerships or Marketing. Got it.
Speaker 2:Okay, you got marketing and growth kind of stuff, activities, stuff like that. Yeah, that's fantastic, yeah, that's really good. So offline we were talking and one of the things you guys said was, like one of the things that you've really helped your company grow is your customer service. So talk to me about that. What do you guys do for customer service? What's that journey look like for you guys in building that?
Speaker 4:Well, I believe we said Raya was the third person, third employee team member we hired and she's just a phenomenal person. It's like as soon as you talk to her you feel like you've known her all your life. She's one of those people who's got a knack. Just to relate, she does. Yeah, she really does. So when people a realtor would call in, she would just the conversation's all about how you're doing and just being friends and oh, by the way, I'd like to book an inspection. Yeah, and so from the initial phone call, the customer service is just it's, I think, incredible. All our inspectors were personally trained by me, okay, and I believe that I've trained them to think like a general contractor. Not just. It's so much more than the 80-hour course that everybody takes online. So I think they're well-versed in how to handle people, how to talk to people, what causes issues in houses and the way we handle the buyer and the buyer's agent. And the report writing, I think is really incredible too. We get incredible reviews of people we have over 4,000 five-star reviews.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's fantastic. Some of these people write books like how the process was so easy and we got them to report the same day. So it's really heartfelt some of the reviews that we really get. But it's a full circle. It takes all of us Dusty's out there getting the phones to ring and once they ring, raya and Debbie and her group answer the phones and take care of the customer and then inspectors take care of that tie up in a pretty tie up yeah, that's one thing I
Speaker 2:really like about the iab community. Is that that whole format? They talk about you and have your, you know your field services, you have your operations and then you're like your growth and if you have all three of those pieces working together, then, man, you can create a really smooth system.
Speaker 4:Bingo, but they all have to be working. You can't have great front end and shitty inspectors or shitty marketing Once they all click, it's fun it is fun.
Speaker 2:It's fun Once it clicks right, Once you get the right people running the right things, right Right Setting the right things, You've got Dusty running growth department. You have what was the gal that was on your operations.
Speaker 3:Debbie.
Speaker 4:Debbie, and she run the whole operations department now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's our manager right now. Yeah, absolutely. And then are you running at the top and then you have what?
Speaker 4:are the three things we learned today.
Speaker 3:I'm supposed to Clear vision.
Speaker 4:CEOs only does three things.
Speaker 3:Execute, manage people.
Speaker 4:I've got to work on that and know finances. No, it is finances. I've got to narrow it down to three things. That's what we learned today. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:But I think that one thing that we've been very, very blessed with is, as you can clearly hear, is the right people actually come to us, like our people, bring in new people. So, when it comes to finding good people to work for us, we have mirrored our best people, and then they go out and they find our next recruits.
Speaker 2:And when you guys looking for people, you just ask your existing staff who do you know it is?
Speaker 3:And it's been very successful for us, and they bring in people just like them, and so we have quite a success story on that level.
Speaker 4:We've got some realtors my daughter when I was looking for a job, she could fit, and we've had Erica's example of that. Diego yeah, his father-in-law is a realtor, okay, and of all the inspection companies that he could have recommended Diego go talk to, he's like you know, know your first stop is the FBI group.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really. That's a quite an honor when you have yeah everybody like realtor referring their people to come talk to you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're seeing the differences between all the other inspection companies in the area. Yeah, one of my best inspectors came from a realtor recommendation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fantastic guy, and I wouldn't found him any other way for sure. No, but he Rudy is his name, and he's just an incredible inspector on our team. Love having him and he's uh, he's, he's uh, he's got some leadership skills in him too, so he's somebody that the other guys look to just naturally as a he's just kind of those natural born leader guys and so, um, it's, it's.
Speaker 4:He's been an incredible addition to the team so that's good to hear you know you're that realtor. Could have referred him to anybody, but he sent him your way, so it says a lot in my book anyways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does say a lot when people are willing to trust you. I mean, as a business owner like you, have these employees working for you. These people have decided to hitch their wagon to your horse and so they've decided, like as an employee, they've decided you know what. I'm going gonna trust you to help my help provide for my family, you know, and so I want to have a work environment that is healthy and happy and where I mean that to where you work is a big deal. You got to make sure you make enough money to provide for your family, but even beyond that, if you hate where you work, you know. Now you want to be a place you love, where you work, and and so I think where you work is a big deal, and people will decide and they want to work for you, and if they're working for you and enjoying their job, I think that's a really big deal, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we've been blessed.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. Hey, how am I doing, Cause I I don't know if I told you, but I've never been on a podcast before.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, His first question was what is a podcast?
Speaker 2:You're doing all right. You're doing all right. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so that's funny. Talk a little word. Yeah, yeah, you're doing okay, I got to get myself into the 90s here.
Speaker 4:That's right. Yeah, you're doing pretty good yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just, you know, it's kind of funny. So podcasts are one of those things like you're probably watching or listening by yourself, either at your computer, or you're at the gym or you're doing something like that, right, so people are watching, listening by themselves. We're just having this conversation. So it's kind of weird. It's like a lot of individual people and so normally it's like we're just having a great conversation and kind of talk about what's going on in your business and there's a lot of stuff people can learn from you and learn from you guys and your company.
Speaker 1:We talk about it.
Speaker 2:People are listening and people get an insight, but really it should just feel like us having a fairly normal conversation.
Speaker 4:I'm a podcast virgin.
Speaker 2:There we go, not anymore. You just got podcasted. How does it feel? It feels good. Is it over yet? It was as good for you as it was for me. That's right, oh my gosh. So the customer service is good and I know, like you said, you do a lot of training. You trained all the guys that you have working for you yeah, do you still do all the training for all the inspectors.
Speaker 4:I do not. I spent about two years. Now I've got some really key people now that I trained way back and went and they mirrored what I did in the training and, quite frankly, the training program we have now is probably better. What, yeah, they've improved, taken what I've done and the basics and improved upon it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And I think the training program's even better than it's ever been.
Speaker 2:Improved upon it, yeah, and I think the training program is even better than it's ever been. See, that's really cool, Like when you're able to like hand the keys of certain parts of your business off to somebody and they go and run with it and they improve it. That's always, they get better than you, then you're like man, I know I have the right people doing the right things here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, We've got. You know, there's checks, you know progress checks in place with the new guys that come on. We set up milestones and things for them to hit. We really have well-written protocols for training now and a training manual Wow, so how long does it take?
Speaker 2:if you have someone totally green by the time they come on, you're like all right, you're going to start working here until the time they're out on their own. How long does that?
Speaker 4:process take for you guys minimum three months. What do you say?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's definitely between three and six months, depending on the aptitude for the job, right? Because if they're, if they're getting it and doing extremely well, we pay for their training, um, you know, and then they do ride-alongs, half days in class, half days in the field. So if they're getting it, they can be through in about three, four months. If they're somebody who's struggling, it usually will take us about six months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and is there a point where you like call it and you're like, yeah, this isn't working, you aren't picking it up fast enough?
Speaker 4:That's only happened once in our history. Ponytail, yeah, that I had to. Had to uh, just say it's just not getting it. But you know, we're all learning the hiring better and through the various coaching programs we've been in. Um uh, was it our, was our T?
Speaker 2:that's here was rstm. That's here. Yep, here recruit select train, motivate.
Speaker 4:And there's two m's right. Is it manage, manage yeah there we go.
Speaker 3:And then there was accumax yeah, that was the other one.
Speaker 2:That was really good. That's a good one. There's a good personality test like that.
Speaker 4:So just being around everybody in uh and ieb and uh, we've learned how to hire much better. We were always recruiting, we were always looking for help and we've had seasoned inspectors come to us from other companies, wanting to jump from another local business to ours, and we put them through those programs and we're like, man, it just doesn't fit, it's not a good fit, right? So we've gotten a lot better at hiring. Yeah, man, absolutely. That's the moral of the story A lot better at hiring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when? You say that it lets me know that you've learned through some bad hires.
Speaker 3:Oh yes, we've had those too. Yeah, I've had a business out there that hasn't had a bad hire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've actually I've owned several businesses in my life and I learned some hard lessons on other businesses that I was able to apply to this one, so I've been pretty fortunate here. I've only had one person I've had to let go with where we were at and that's because he was drinking on the oh yeah, that doesn't work well with ladders.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, absolutely not Still no fun. Either way, it's still no fun. Oh, it's no fun letting somebody go right, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've got some good team, good training, good customer service, and one thing you guys mentioned is it's an FBI group. What is a group Like?
Speaker 4:you have other things going on Like what's happening. Yeah, a group is. Yeah, we have several ancillary, complementary businesses. I guess you call them Okay. You know, in addition to just the home inspections I mean, we have there's several of us in Florida you have to be a state-certified mold assessor to do mold testing, okay, and we write protocols for mold remediation companies. So we have small environmental. You know we do the mold testing, lead testing and radon testing. So that's some environmental inspections we do and we want to talk about HomeWatch.
Speaker 3:We're huge on commercial. So we also have a commercial home inspection or commercial inspection.
Speaker 2:Okay, you do commercial buildings. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, we do some of that too With my background.
Speaker 4:that just came easy for us, and we do quite a bit of property condition assessments.
Speaker 2:It's a little different.
Speaker 4:Home inspections for commercial buildings. It's a little different. Yeah, they're different. They're inspections, you know, home inspections for commercial buildings. It's a little different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're different. Yeah, we do the same. Give you those too. Yeah, yeah, but they're looking for different things. Yeah, and equipment.
Speaker 4:Some of these buildings are different. They're not just furnaces, you know, and there's chillers up there sometimes, yeah yeah. So it's a whole other skill set that I'm not sure they teach it some of the local schools or not. No, they really don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I don't know when we started getting into commercial. You know I had some good advice from some people, so we started getting into commercials, like all right, well, if there's systems in this property that you maybe aren't familiar with. So we did this. One industrial property had huge industrial cranes, which means they had to have massive amounts of power to come in, come into this property and stuff that I just knew like this is beyond what we normally see. So I called a friend of mine who does industrial electric. He's an electrical licensed guy and said, hey, will you come help us on this one? So I subcontracted this guy and brought him in on the team for that one job, because I knew that the that.
Speaker 2:So in that process, though, I basically you know myself and my lead inspector, we basically shadowed him during that inspection where my other guys were working on other things, and so basically we paid him, we kind of he kind of trained us on some things. Hey, man, tell us this, tell us that. And so he totally did it. And so we actually hired him a couple times on bigger electrical jobs. Same thing with an HVAC. We have a couple of HVAC guys that we bring in. We had one unit, one building. It was a 200,000-square-foot building and a huge monster air handler is on the roof. It's like with the big condensers on the ground. It's a huge system on and so yeah so we hired that guy to come in.
Speaker 4:You don't want to steer somebody wrong.
Speaker 2:No, you don't. You don't want to steer somebody wrong.
Speaker 4:You don't need a quarter million dollar switch panel or switch gear or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. Yeah, we've had enough experience. We don't really.
Speaker 4:We mark up their price, put it in our package and take their. So it's, that's what. Yeah, and I forgot to mention on our commercials last year or two, we got into doing phase one inspection, the phase one.
Speaker 2:How's that going for you guys?
Speaker 4:Really well, they're fascinating, fascinating reports, uh-huh. And we hire out the historical research to a third party because I don't even know where they find these information from. They go back 30 years, right, and they have aerial photographs and stuff from way back. Wow, it's really a fascinating report. So that's something that separates us as well. Think, in the commercial world, yeah, we can do the inspection, commercial building inspection and phase one, and usually they got to run around and find one or the other so that, yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker 2:I can imagine that, like your, your phase one stuff would feed into more property condition reports and then our assessments and also your PCA's, with that feedback into more yep, that seems like a symbiotic thing it is.
Speaker 4:And yeah, the Realtors are like oh, we didn't know. Once they find out, we do both. It's one wonderful call and they get them both done yeah, so it's taking that.
Speaker 2:Well, that helps a lot and that that's.
Speaker 3:That's pretty awesome yes, we have two other businesses under the what else you got in your group so we launched two years ago home watch. So we live in the state of Florida. We have a lot of snowbirds who live here. We have a lot of military that live here and sometimes they have to leave the home for an extended period of time. We can come in weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and make site visits. There's a client facing portal that will give you pictures and updates of everything that we did in the visit and you know it's just a very easy process. If someone listed their house and they they're deployed or they had to move for a job, we can go in and oversee the property until the house sells. So there's a couple of different uses for home watch.
Speaker 2:So it kind of prevents or at least reduces the risk of squatters, correct Right. And then also, if it's like hey, we have documented evidence that there was no leak here, here, here, here, there's a pipe that burst.
Speaker 3:Even for insurance purposes or anything else. You're like like we know what happened between these two times. That's correct, yeah. Yeah, it's a really good thing, because the squatters have really just increased.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean I imagine in florida and tampa too, like the snowbird situation, there's probably a lot of houses that are are vacant and people only there half the year. I mean that's that's gonna happen here, probably in phoenix, arizona, another one Probably. It's a pretty popular place to have that as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you always hear the horror stories on the news too, that squatters have more rights than sometimes the people who own the houses.
Speaker 1:Isn't that wild.
Speaker 4:And then you can't get them out. You have to go through a full eviction process to get them out.
Speaker 3:Hillsborough County just passed a law. They do not have to do that that's so good.
Speaker 4:Just slam them by the back of the neck and throw them out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, it is wild how the laws have protected these. Yeah, they almost catered and protected to people who are breaking the law.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're like well, wait a minute, hold on, that's not your house, you didn't pay for it, it just broke in and stayed.
Speaker 4:That's not okay, but a little part of me does admire the audacity of these people to break into somebody's house and just call it their own, claim it as their own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, you can't kick me out.
Speaker 4:Unless you get a lawyer, I'm like, wow, that takes a. It does, isn't?
Speaker 2:that wild.
Speaker 4:It does.
Speaker 3:It's a lot.
Speaker 2:That is a lot, yeah. So what else is in your guys' group?
Speaker 3:So we also have home services. So we just launched home services services in March. And that is, if you have a contract on your house, you upload an inspection report. It doesn't have to be FBI, but unfortunately there are other inspection companies out there.
Speaker 2:Just joking.
Speaker 3:But you can use anybody's inspection report. You just upload and tell us exactly what you want repaired. We give you back a quote within 24 to 48 hours and then we manage all of the vendors. So you're not responsible for meeting the plumber 24 to 48 hours and then we manage all of the vendors. So you're not responsible for meeting the plumber out on one day and then the electrician out on one day day. So what we were trying to do is give back the agent time, because time's money and you don't have so many hours in a day, and we were getting request after request like who do you know that does blah fill?
Speaker 2:in the blank.
Speaker 3:We get that too, we decided to fill in the blank.
Speaker 2:So that's fantastic. Okay, the home services. So you guys don't do the work, you just manage the contractors doing the work.
Speaker 3:Well, we have a handyman.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we hired a in-house full-time employee that does the quoting and stuff and like the screen repairs, we'll do stuff. We'll do a lot in-house. Well, yeah, I mean, sometimes there's like a loose hinge or a handle, or Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the toilet's loose, just tighten it up, or whatever Wall painting. Yeah, yeah, drive-off repairs.
Speaker 4:Some of our door jam rot. But because I'm a licensed general contractor in the state of Florida, I am allowed to hire electricians or plumbers and HVAC guys. Those need specific licenses. I can mark up their price and go and do the work. If there is a need for a complete electrical panel, we can quote it. Got it and we'll make the arrangements. Just call us. Here's our price done and we'll take care of hiring the electrical contractor, getting the work in place and do all the invoicing and making sure the project gets done. That's awesome. So, yeah, we'll hire the professionals when we need to and we'll do the. Do the handyman you work? Internal, yeah, internal.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I love that. So the home services group home services how long ago did you guys start that?
Speaker 3:March, march 2024. It was right after mega marketing. Yeah, we launched it at mega marketing and then we actually yeah, so just recently, just recently, how's that?
Speaker 4:going? Are you guys getting a lot of?
Speaker 2:work out of that Is it being? What's the reception on that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, the agents love it. Okay, and there's a high level of trust with us already. Yeah, because you know doing inspections and we've been around and we've been in the in the in the area for a number of years, so they just know it's, it's gonna be handled. So, just like all that, would be nice to just a little bit busier. But even the home inspections I wish it was a little bit busy. Yeah, so it's just following the same same cycle as home inspections. When we're up, our home services business is up. I think it just follows the ebb and flow of the inspection business.
Speaker 2:We're all bolted onto the real estate market. There's things way outside of our control. We can't control interest rates, we can't really control how hot or cold the market is in general. The only thing we can really look at is like maybe our market share, like if we're still, if we're doing 20% of the homes in our market, you know, and if the market's going up, are we still doing 20%? Or if the market's going down, are we still doing 20%? But you know, yeah, you can't really control how many houses are going to buy the agents.
Speaker 2:Nope, and you can't right. You can't control the realtors and can't control the market. There's a lot of factors in our business that you just can't control, and so you got to really focus on the ones you can at least. Yeah. And then cause I hear a lot of guys get frustrated with you know, well, this or that and it's like, well, those are all based on things you can't control. So what can you control? And get in there and work on that, yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good, yeah. So the home services group is new. I like that. That's something I know people have been talking about inside of IEB. I've heard people talking about it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, just like we've talked about it and we knew it was valuable and it took us a while to find the right person to run it for us. It just takes time to find the right people. It always takes time to find the right people.
Speaker 2:It always takes time to find the right people. Yeah, so getting that thing started, what are some things that you did right and what are some things that you wish you'd done differently?
Speaker 4:It's so new. I wish we would have found something sooner.
Speaker 3:And when you say somebody Well, I think that, looking at where we are right we are right now, I believe that it needs to be two people somebody who's managing the day-to-day with, uh, the quotes, the calls, the follow-ups, the um, that type, and then someone going out and doing the handyman type work and then the subcontractors. I think, when we're looking at what's going on right now, I think that position needed to be divided. Right now, we've got one person doing everything, got it.
Speaker 3:And he gets behind, and so then we're not hitting our goal on the $24 to $48 turnaround. He's on a job or he can't call somebody back. I think the two need to be separated. It was manageable.
Speaker 4:When we weren't busy. But now we get punched in the face by two hurricanes. Right, oh, wow. So the phone's ringing off the hook. He's trying to do as much as he can. He's juggling, yeah, yeah, we're probably it'd be good to hire an assistant right now.
Speaker 2:Okay so you're like an operations person and then like a field services person. Right Kind of like an inspection company where you need those two different roles and those are two different people. They're normally wired differently.
Speaker 3:They are.
Speaker 2:An operations person thinks about things one way and a field services guy thinks about the other way, normally, yeah, which is like complementary, but you kind of need both people, yeah. So you're at the place now where you have the, so you're kind of like starting this thing up. It's like a home inspection company.
Speaker 2:When you're starting that up, you know you you have one guy does everything like right and then as it goes and you're like ah, shoot this, I need to hire somebody to do operations, and then, and so yeah, I think like yeah, it sounds like you're kind of in that same boat of going from a one person Now you're going to go to two, and then, pretty, soon three and four and five.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we were fortunate we had the front end office in place, that we just added a phone line to our existing phone system, so the girls know it's a home services call coming in. Okay, so we don't have to worry about answering the phones and booking the work. All that stuff was already in place. Yeah, so, yeah, we expect big things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's really interesting. I'm interested to see how that scales and goes for you guys. And yeah, so are we. Yeah, that is really exciting. I know that.
Speaker 4:I've heard a lot of people talk about that, I know at times I've even talked about what it looks like to start something like that. It makes sense because, like Dusty had mentioned, every home inspection has something that needs to be usually worked in. There's no perfect house Either on site or afterwards they always call back. Who do you know that can fix that out? Who do you know? Hey, they can fix that out, but who do you know it's? Just hey, you know.
Speaker 3:I know us yeah At this other company.
Speaker 4:It's some added service, some added value. We can so inside your.
Speaker 2:FBI group.
Speaker 3:is it a different company? That is actually the. It's a separate entity. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2:And is it called FBI services or what?
Speaker 3:do you guys call it? It's FBI Home Services, home Services. Okay, you almost had it.
Speaker 2:Almost yeah FBI Home Services.
Speaker 4:FBI Home Watch, fbi Home Services yeah.
Speaker 3:So FBI group has inspections, home Watch and Home Services.
Speaker 4:I love it. See the theme we got going there. I know, yeah, you got a theme.
Speaker 2:I still think you should get the jackets with the big yellow.
Speaker 1:FBI on the back I think you should have blacked out SUVs.
Speaker 2:I think you'd black out SUVs for all of your vehicles, like pulling up in Tahoe's and stuff.
Speaker 3:Listen, they already come out of the house when a car comes into the neighborhood that has FBI logo on the hood Right. People come out to see why is the FBI in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2:That is so awesome.
Speaker 3:We had inspectors stuck up on a roof because there were like five or six guys who came out and surrounded the car. They wouldn't come down.
Speaker 4:Not so desirable neighborhood.
Speaker 3:And that was during 2020, when everything was a little crazy.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 3:Right People don't read.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:They don't read, they see FBI and they're thinking what's the FBI doing in the neighborhood?
Speaker 2:That is awesome. What a great marketing, though they all know now who you are and what you do.
Speaker 4:Objectives, keep the real ones From showing up at our door. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they say, like no bad news, there's no bad marketing, like if you're in the news then it's bad. Yeah, right, I mean, I know they say there's no bad news, but you know, I don't know. You could ask Pete Eddy right now.
Speaker 4:I think he's got some bad news yeah, the real guy is the yellow belt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you've got like you know, if your business is getting some news and some exposure through something like that, I think that's pretty cool. I actually was been torn on this idea about buying a bunch of hearses, because hearses as the fleet vehicles, you know, because when you think about it like they're like, they're like what Cadillacs, mercedes, they're really nice luxury vehicles so the guys get to ride around it in like a comfortable interior. You know the back end of that thing is huge Tools.
Speaker 2:So the guys get to ride around it and like a comfortable interior. You know the back end of that thing is huge. You want to slide out trays, Like see if an organizer with our tools and things can slide in and slide out, and if you wrap it with like all the crazy colors, you're like Ghostbusters. Right, they had that. Hurts that they basically use as their vehicle, right, so you get a hearse and you and you line the whole.
Speaker 2:Thing up then, like you could, like I was thinking about like down in the corner being like home of the deal killer and like tally marks, you know like the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Speaker 1:Like some tally marks scratched on it, you know.
Speaker 2:Just a little nod to the industry of like hey you know, wouldn't it be funny just like you into the side of the vehicles when the deal's killed? You should do that.
Speaker 3:You should actually have someone do that graphics-wise Right. Wouldn't that be funny?
Speaker 2:And so I've been talking about this for a while, I was like I want to do that and replace my whole vehicle. Plus, used hearses are so cheap because nobody wants to buy them. Who's going to buy? A used hearse like the funeral home was always replacing with newer ones, so you can get one.
Speaker 1:They don't have a lot of miles on them you know, I was like man.
Speaker 2:This is like win, win, win.
Speaker 1:You can buy one for like 10 grand instead of like you know, 30 for these vans or 40 for these vans, I was like, I was like man, I could save some money and then everywhere people driving around like hearses, I was like, oh man, I gotta do this, so it might still happen.
Speaker 2:I'm not really sure we've talked about it in-house a few times. I'll put you on the map for sure yeah, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think so right. I think it would definitely like people well in my market um uh, there was nobody running fleets like uh, like everybody.
Speaker 2:They had inspectors and vehicles. They didn't have like a unified fleet with wrapped up vehicles, yeah, which was a little like I was kind of surprised. I guess my market was highly like solo guys, just lots of solo, maybe one or two people, but nothing like really like organized. And so when I showed up and sort of doing it that way it already makes a name people already say I see your vehicles everywhere.
Speaker 4:I see your vans everywhere, but I know if I made a statement out of like the hearse, I mean come on right, come on, even if you did a couple of them right.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2:It's like, well, one of them's getting a little long on the tooth right. One of the vans is, and so it's about time to replace it. So I'm thinking about what would it look like to maybe turn it into at least one hearse and try that and see what kind of noise it makes. See what kind of noise it makes, yeah, and to see, with the slide-out tray and all the tools in the back. Does the employee like it too? Does the inspector like it? Of course? On that it's going to be terrible.
Speaker 3:Matthew, you're going to do it, that's right. Buy the hearse, go ahead and rock it out, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:The gas mileage on those is probably not going to be great, but you know, I don't know, I got to at least get one right.
Speaker 4:Make it my marketing vehicle.
Speaker 3:That might not be a bad idea. Just roll up to yeah, I was either. Hummers and like and wrap that whole thing in a giant like inspection. Look something like just what stands out. I like the hearse. Yeah, you gotta go for the hearse, the hearse, and we get a hearse. That's what we're gonna do. A Hummer and gas mileage? I don't. Yeah, that won't, do you well? No, the gas mileage won't.
Speaker 2:But if I just had one and I pulled it up to all the different events. You know like you could put all the because we have, like this, tents and all the marketing swag. You pull up with that thing and it's like people are going to know you're there, they're not going to miss you, you know what I think? I'm going to buy one. I'm going to buy one hearse and make it my marketing vehicle.
Speaker 4:I think you should. They're worried about. When we pull up with the FBI trucking, You're going to pull up like who died. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:This house, his house. The realtor's gonna kill me. That's a pretty cool. I love the fbi van thing. That's pretty cool. Yeah, how long you been in ieb.
Speaker 2:So I started with ieb. Let's see, I started my company five years ago and then, um, I joined ieb about a year a year, less than less than a year into it. So I ran into the IEB stuff. It was Dirk was part of it, dirk and Greg Bryan, and so it was. I did the online.
Speaker 2:There was an online video course and I think we still offer it to this day or something like that. They've changed it up a little bit. But the first online video course it was like just one flat fee. You could buy the course, and it was just one flat fee. You could buy the course, and it was Dirk talking about mission, vision, values and it was all those things. And so I just started implementing everything that I could from that video course, and so I did that, and then the company was taken off, and then I was like, okay, I need something more. And that's when I realized, oh, ieb has this whole other side that I didn't even know was there because I just wasn't that aware, and so and then, yeah, so so really since the beginning of my company, ieb has been a pretty active part of it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, and my company took off in my second year in business. We did a million dollars in our second year and and it just was took off like a rocket ship, you know and so which I know it was like I didn't know that I didn't know what I didn't know.
Speaker 4:I had no idea that that wasn't normal. You share some of the stories. Even Greg's story is crazy. All those years as a solo guy Died five times over before he decided to get help.
Speaker 2:It's just oh my gosh, it's amazing. It's been a fun journey for me on the inspection side of it. I'm more of a sales guy than an inspector, like when you really kind of look at it, like my temperament and kind of how I'm wired and stuff. So I'm just grateful to have amazing people around me. I have an amazing team of people that are so smart. My lead inspector is way better inspector than I ever was.
Speaker 3:He's just incredible. He's a phenomenal leader and he's incredible.
Speaker 2:He's a phenomenal leader, and so they have a great leader and a great lead inspector. And then, really, I started looking at my rank and file of inspectors and I think probably all of them are better inspectors than I am.
Speaker 4:That's good. That's a good sign. I think I'm in that boat too. I probably. I don't even know if I could inspect a house now. I don't know if I could either.
Speaker 2:If I did, it would take me a while, you know. Yeah, like it would just I'd be slower, and and I have people say like well, I'd love to have you come out and inspect it and I laugh and I was like no, you don't, yeah, and they're like or didn't you start the company, aren't you? And I was like I haven't inspected a house in a couple years. I said, I said I'll be honest, I'd be really rusty. So you know, I always sound like you don't. You don't actually want me to do that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I remember these days trying to, trying to get out of the field and people trying to call you back in. I'm like I'll do it, but I'm bringing somebody with me. I'm bringing another guy with me. I do that too, I'll just stand there and be like all right, I'm here. What was that looking like getting?
Speaker 2:out of the field, because that's a big turning point, especially when you've been in business for a while. People expect to see you out there every now and again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was hard. How'd you do that? What are some strategies you used? We would slap Raya's hand literally Operations, yeah, we would say he's out of the field, don't schedule him. And what would she do?
Speaker 4:Schedule me. We had a celebration my last day in the field. They gave me a plaque.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we did.
Speaker 4:It was like.
Speaker 4:July 7th and then I had to keep taping it over like July 7th. They booked me another one. It would be August. Another year later, I'm still changing the dates on my retirement plaque. That is hilarious. It got to the point where I just had to put my foot down and say I'm out. I don't do it, and I have other inspectors who are just as good, if not better than me, and I recommend him. We always point to this guy. He's got more requests than I had, so he's our number one request inspector.
Speaker 4:I'll put him there and there was some kick and scream and I may have lost one realtor that just had to have me, but if she couldn't have me she would go to a completely different company. I'm like it's my company, right? I don't understand your logic. Just because I can't do the inspection. Yeah, I got all these qualified other inspectors.
Speaker 4:Right, and you're going to flush the FBI group and go with somebody else because I can't do your inspection. It makes no sense to me, but that was a one-off. But after a few inspections with the other inspectors the people that I was always they were fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the things that really helped me. So one thing was I was actually here at an IEB event it was a Unite event, I remember a few years ago now and they were talking about getting out of the field and I was like, yeah, I probably need to do that. And so I was like, alright, when I get back I'm going to stop. And so I went back and I told everybody hey guys, it's time for me to make this transition. And everybody's like, okay, let's see if we can do it. And I was like, yeah, we're going to do it. So one of the things that somebody at an event I don't remember, who now told me but this is what I ended up doing that helped, is they would. And I would tell him like, oh, matt's really busy but I can get him on this one, but because he's so busy, I'm going to bring another inspector with him, you know. And so that way, you know, that way it gets done in a timely manner. That's a good idea.
Speaker 2:Like introduce him introduce the other inspector. Well, introduce the other inspector. And then what I did was I, so the first inspector would get there before me on purpose. I would show up 10 minutes late. So the inspector, the first. Maybe I hate Matt's on his way, don't worry, he'll be here, but let me go ahead and get this thing started so we're not just waiting around. And so they get them going and get them started and I would pull up. I'd get out of my truck, I'd be wearing a suit, jacket and a tie and slacks and dress shoes. Very clear signal I am not getting in your attic.
Speaker 4:I'm not getting in your roof. I'm not getting in your roof.
Speaker 2:I'm not doing any of that stuff and so I would come in dressed obvious I am. I mean that might be the only appointment on my day, like I would that I would leave the office. But I'm going to leave the office, I'm going to and be like it was like all right, how are you guys doing Danny's here, you know, and they'd be like oh yeah, and I was like listen, yeah, I know, like I, I I don't really do the. You know, it's like I got. I had business meetings today.
Speaker 3:So and I just tell you know it's like, but I'm here to help out and so that I stay around.
Speaker 2:I'd stick around until the end, you know. And then I'd let Danny do the summary and I'd be like, well, you know, danny did the whole summary and I'd just kind of hang back and watch and then they get all done. I was like, awesome guys, thank you so much. And so I was like listen, I got to trying to juggle all these different hats, you know. And so they'd be like, yeah, I was like listen, you can help you guys, whatever, it's really nice Really. You know, it's nice to them all and stuff.
Speaker 3:But then that was a great idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So then guess what Next time they call? They don't like, they're like, oh, so I know I would actually call a realtor too. Afterwards I'm like, hey, I hope Danny did't really think about that, you know. And I'm like, yeah, it's okay, how was? How was Danny? He was great, listen like, listen. I'd really appreciate it If you'd help me out. Like I really don't have the time or bandwidth to keep doing inspections because I have to run the actual company now. Very smooth, somebody gave me that idea. I love that. Yeah, so we missed that conversation, I know right.
Speaker 3:So if you're listening to this show and you're like.
Speaker 2:I'm trying so hard. They keep pulling me back. They keep pulling me back in. I tell you, you show up in a suit and tie they know. They don't even ask you to get. You have another inspector there with you. Let them show up late on purpose. Yeah, absolutely, and you get your whole team helping you with that.
Speaker 4:And they'll get you out real fast. We missed that IEV podcast. Yeah, I know, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know where I learned.
Speaker 2:Somebody told me about it and it wasn't even at an official event or a meeting, it was just a conversation. Somebody gave me that suggestion and I was like I'm gonna try that out and it worked like a charm. And so I still, every once in a while I'll have, like you know, some major, major realtor feeling like they're gonna. You know, well, I really haven't seen you out in inspections like I haven't. I haven't done one in years, you know. And so they're like well, what would it take for me to? He's like you don't want me to go out there, you know you don't want me to go do that one. I'm like, well, I was like you know what, all right, I'll like I'll show up at your next one, when your next one, and then I do the same thing. I make sure suit, tie, dress, shoes, the whole works. I dress way nicer for that than anything else. I'm gonna do that and it's a very, very strong statement. You show up 10-15 minutes late. You show up late on purpose.
Speaker 3:The inspector already has the momentum in the people I'm telling you that that did it next time we had one, we had one realtor who only dealt with owners of a company. Yes.
Speaker 4:I wonder if he still does business with us. I'm not going to say his name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're not going to do that.
Speaker 4:He was like Adamant, it was me or nobody yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know people like that. It's like, well, you know, I don't know why they think they're that important. I don't really quite understand that. It's like listen, I'm not going to tell you how to run your business. It's like realtors. They'll build a team, they'll get like buyer's agents and seller's agents and they're building a whole team and system and it's funny how some people will like, want to demand how they're like you to run your business like well, it's not your business, you know it's my business.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of interesting to see that I never quite understood how people do that. I stopped trying to think, stopped trying to. Yeah right, I loved having you here. I'm sure that people probably have questions or want to get in touch with you. What's the best way for someone to get a hold of you if they want to get touched after this?
Speaker 3:The best way is to call the office. Okay, what's?
Speaker 2:the number 813-409-3249. Okay.
Speaker 3:Or they can go on the website and schedule it themselves at flbigroupcom.
Speaker 2:Okay, and if they want to get ahold of you guys specifically, maybe to follow up on a conversation from this, talk to the podcast Virgin. That's right, talk to the podcast Virgin.
Speaker 4:That's right. Either call the office and ask for the podcast, virgin. Or it's just it's it's Tom at FLBI group.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Email me, you know, I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Speaker 2:Oh, that sounds great. We'll get that information in the show notes here You're going to give out your email.
Speaker 3:They can call me 813-415-1043 is my personal number.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep, that sounds great, guys Well thank you guys so much for being on the show.
Speaker 4:This has been fantastic. It's been a lot of fun actually Appreciate it yeah.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Empire State of Mind. For the home inspection industry and beyond, our passion is to elevate the home inspection industry with mindset, strategy and tools. We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate and review. For more, follow on Instagram at IEB Coaching and don't forget to hit the website at wwwiebcoachingcom. Learn about IEB at no cost and have all your questions answered on our open call once a month on the third week of the month. We hope to see you there and we'll see you next time on the Empire State of Mind.
